Kanye West “New Slaves” Projections Shut Down in Houston

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By: Charley Rogulewski/ May 25, 2013

Kanye West fans expecting to see the rapper’s “New Slaves” projections at various locations throughout Houston, only saw flashing lights instead. Three of West’s locations in H-Town — the Rothko Chapel, the Central Library downtown and the George Bush Monument — were a no-go during the second weekend of West’s public video screening across the globe.

Last week, the video for ‘Ye’s controversial new single “New Slaves,” off his upcoming Yeezus LP, debuted — without a hitch — on 66 walls across the globe: Toronto, Berlin, Paris, Sydney, Los Angeles and more. Yesterday, West announced via Twitter that Round 2 of the worldwide projections would include cities such as Birmingham, U.K.; Milan, Italy; Auckland, New Zealand; San Diego, California and several more. Fans made their way to the new locations half-hoping for a new video or track, but were greeted by the same visuals of the week before … and in some cases, like Houston, the smell of bacon.

According to the Houston Chronicle, the three video projection locations were shutdown for various reasons. Cops told fans at Houston’s Rothko Chapel that they’d be arrested for trespassing if they did not leave. Ironic that a church shutdown West’s screening, considering West’s play on all things holy for this sixth album — from the Yeezus title, to tracks like “I Am A God.”

Technical difficulties were to blame for Central Library’s botched screening, while the George Bush Monument was less of a pleasant story according to fans. “All we saw were the sprinklers come on and obnoxious people screaming Kanye threats,” a fan said. The George Bush Monument fail is also interesting to note considering that little incident from the Hurricane Katrina telethon in 2006. While the loaction was not originally listed on Kanye West’s website, it was tweeted out via Roc-A-Fella Records, who will release West’s new record.

There were no reports of arrests from any of the locations.

Yeezus drops June 18. Below is the successful projection from the Auckland, New Zealand location captured on Friday, May 24.